Hearn: I Think Saunders Would Have Been Badly Hurt in Next Round

Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-division champion Billy Joe Saunders, believes his boxer would have been badly hurt had the fight continued with Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

On Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Canelo stopped Saunders in eight rounds to unify the WBO, WBA, WBC super middleweight titles.

During the eight round, Saunders was clipped by a big uppercut that fractured his orbital bone on the right eye. 

The eye began to rapidly swell up as the round concluded.

When Saunders returned to the corner, he advised his head trainer Mark Tibbs that his vision was impaired in the right eye.

Tibbs made a swift decision to stop the fight before the start of the ninth round.

Saunders was immediately transported to a local hospital where it was confirmed that he suffered several fractures on the right orbital bone and as a result he underwent surgery.

The recovery process will be long and Hearn is not sure if Saunders will ultimately decide to continue his career.

“You could see as soon as he hit him that he’d done his eye socket. I think because he couldn’t see, the next round was going to be a bad situation. I think he would have got badly hurt in that round,” Hearn told IFL TV.

“He’s going to be out for a long, long time. But he’s a world-class fighter who lost to the pound-for-pound number one. He’s a two-weight world champion.

“If he wants to carry on there’s some big fights out there for him. He may feel he has got to a stage where he’s been there, he’s done it, he’s seen it all. We’ll back him 100 percent.”